Exclusive First Look: The Conduit

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A futuristic first-person shooter designed from the ground up for Wii.

By Matt Casamassina

With Wii, Nintendo has created the best-selling current-generation videogame system in the world and the company's little white box is showing no signs of slowing down. Case in point, March 2008's hardware and software sales – not only did the Big N's console destroy the competition (more than 720,000 people bought a Wii last month compared to 260,000 for Xbox 360 and 250,000 for PS3, according to NPD), but with epic titles like Mario Kart and Wii Fit just around the corner, demand for the system is sure to remain at an all-time high. And yet, developers faced with the prospect of creating original Wii titles don't always have rosy stories to tell, a truth attributable to the fact that so many third-party publishers remain unwilling to gamble on high-budgeted projects for the console. Something that skews older. Something that doesn't revolve around a series of mini-games. Something that looks better than a PlayStation 2 game.

The argument, going on in the board rooms of major third-parties around the globe, is that adult-oriented Wii software doesn't sell. That there's no market for it. Developers on the other side of the fence assert that there's no such proof since only a handful of quality games with an edgier style have even made their way to Wii, most of them ports. Several studios have flat-out told IGN that their attempts to make darker software for Wii have been politely declined by a host of big-name publishers. (And we'll have more on another such game in the near future.)

Real-time gameplay screen from the Wii-exclusive FPS, The Conduit

High Voltage Software, making games for 15 years, is one company well underway with a title built from the ground up for Wii. It's a first-person shooter that revolves around government conspiracies and alien cover-ups. It's using an advanced 3D engine that really makes the most of Nintendo's hardware. And it features a control scheme that fully utilizes the Wii remote. And right now, the game needs a publisher.

High Voltage is gambling that Wii owners want a mature FPS.

It's called The Conduit and it takes place during present day. Washington D.C. finds itself the epicenter of an extraterrestrial attack and it's up to gamers, as the secret service's Agent Ford, to discover the truth hidden behind the invasion. To do that, he'll need a variety of guns and the skills to use them. High Voltage calls The Conduit a straightforward first-person shooter in the style of Halo, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 or Resistance: Fall of Man – basically, fast, run-and-gun battles and stylized weapons. The Conduit also features advanced enemy artificial intelligence enabling "human-like behavior" and a special device called the All Seeing Eye (or ASE), which, according to the studio, allows players to "reveal concealed objects and enemies, providing a deeper level of puzzle-solving."

The video above showcases High Voltage's Quantum3 gameplay engine, which has been designed to make the most of the Wii system.